


Flip Side

by JWade



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Tear Rating 4/10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-16 21:40:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13062708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JWade/pseuds/JWade
Summary: Gabriel gets Sam's frantic call and rushes to help just in time to get blasted by Amara. When he wakes up to find that they seem to have actually succeeded at ending the world the one time he tries to take a vacation, he's more than pissed.





	1. Chapter 1

Sam breathed a sigh of relief as Amara knelt on the floor, defeated, waiting for Chuck to kill her. Then everything changed. She lifted Chuck by the throat and still used a spare bit of power to blast Lucifer out of Cas and knock him unconscious. Sam knew they were completely screwed now and he could resist a silent plea for help to anyone who was listening, only to be surprised that someone actually was. He barely caught sight of a blonde head of hair before he was blasted away too. 

Gabriel had been sitting on some distant world, drinking a fruity cocktail while lounging on their approximation of a beach when he heard a desperate cry of help from Sam Winchester, and he didn’t even hesitate. As much as he hated the youngest Winchester, both of them really, for all the damage they had done, he couldn’t help but love him just as much, and he could never ignore such a cry for help. If he had realized exactly what he was flying into, he might have made an exception this time though. 

When the dust settled, Sam looked around in shock, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. He saw his brother trying to shake Cas awake, Chuck laying there unconscious, along with their attempted savior and he sucked in a sharp breath when he saw that it was Gabriel. He’d thought Gabriel was dead. He rushed to the archangel first, and sighed in relief when he felt a pulse just as he heard a groan from Chuck and rushed over to him instead. 

“He’s dying,” Amara said with a sad sort of smugness. “My brother will dim and fade away into nothing.” Sam gasped as he tried to help Chuck sit up and Amara settled her gaze on him. “But not until he sees what comes next. Not until he watches this world, everything he created, everything he loves turn to ash.” She looked around the room coldly. “Welcome to the end,” she said as she disappeared.

Rowena and Crowley came back in and informed them of the problems with the sun, and Gabriel still hadn’t woken up. Dean got Cas unsteadily to his feet and then took Chuck from Sam, so Sam could pick up Gabriel. They needed to regroup and figure out where to go next. Sam put Gabriel in the room next to his and left the door open so that he would hear if he woke up while he went to plan with the others, but his heart wasn’t in it in the slightest. His mind kept going back to Gabriel. He both hated and loved the archangel, and hated himself for loving him. After everything that Gabriel had put them through, he still couldn’t help it. 

It wasn’t long before Dean went out for a beer run, leaving Sam to try and find a solution to the biggest problem they’d faced so far. How the hell do they save the sun? And preferably God too. Sam finally lit on the idea to tip the balance back. If God was dying, then Amara had to die too and that might just fix things. Chuck seemed rather non-committal about the plan, but then it was planning the death of his sister so that might be way. 

Unbeknownst to Sam, Chuck knew that it wouldn’t work. None of it would make a difference really, save to not let her win. They would all lose. Once Sam refused to do nothing, there was nothing else that could be done. Dean had just walked out, on his way to essentially commit suicide, and Crowley, Rowena, and Chuck headed out to find a bar and get plastered while they waited for the end, and didn’t that sound like the start of a joke. A demon, a witch, and god walk into a bar…but Sam didn’t want to leave Gabriel. He figured the least he could do is make sure that the archangel didn’t die alone, so he went and sat beside Gabriel’s bedside, not particularly wanting to be alone himself. 

It didn’t take long before Gabriel woke up with a groan, hands going to hold his head. “Gabriel!” Sam said gladly. At least he would have someone to talk to now. 

“Sam?” Gabriel asked confused before he managed to take in the whole situation. “Oh, for the love of my father. So, you finally succeeded in destroying the world huh? I always knew you yahoos would find a way to take me down with you,” he said heatedly. 

“Wh-what do you mean?” Sam asked, wondering just how much Gabriel knew. 

“I can feel this world dying. And there’s not a doubt in my mind that you morons are behind it. You couldn’t just leave me on my nice little beach on the other side of the universe. Nooo. You just had to call me here to get my powers blasted away so I’m stuck going out with you too. Thanks a lot,” he said sarcastically. 

“Yeah, well, where were you when we needed help?” Sam snapped back, not much in the mood for Gabriel throwing it all on his shoulders. “Even Lucifer was here helping, but you were…what? Lounging on a beach?” 

“Fuck off, Winchester. I’ve done my part and then some. And get treated like trash for it too, so don’t give me any of your high and mighty bullshit.”

“Well how do you expect to be treated after everything you put us through. One little piece of information isn’t going to make up for all that,” Sam told him. 

“Everything I put you through? Are you fucking kidding me? What about everything you put me through? I’m sitting there killing myself trying to stop the apocalypse and you go and start it anyway. And then get all pissy with me because I won’t hop to and kill my brother just because you were stupid enough not to listen to me? Forget the fact that a fight between me and Luci would be just as destructive as a fight between Mikey and Luci and would rather defeat the whole point. No. High and mighty Winchester says it so I’m a bad guy for not following through? Kiss my ass.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Sam asked both pissed and confused now. 

“Really? You want to spend our last moments hashing everything out? Fine. I drew you two to that college to try and get through to you. To give you a powerful friend to call on instead of a fucking demon. I even had a backup plan. I used that meeting to tune myself to you so that I could highjack any prayers, but no. You have to go running to a demon before even trying a simple fucking prayer for help. Then I try to teach you to let go of your brother and derail the whole demon blood, killing Lilith thing, and you just completely ignore it and go do it anyway, so I had to try and go the cleanup route and lock you in a separate dimension, so they couldn’t touch you, but no. You have to go and throw the spanner in the works on that one too. What the hell else did you expect me to do? I gave you the only other plan, busted my ass to see it through, and then spent the next five years cleaning up your messes from the background and I’m still the bad guy? You assholes have gotten millions of people killed because of your bullshit, and I bust my ass to stop it, but I’m the jerk and you’re all lily white beings of perfection. Then the one time I actually try and get a fucking vacation, you actually manage to finally kill the world off and you’re STILL trying to make me the bad guy. Well fuck you and fuck your brother and fuck it all because I don’t fucking care anymore.”

“Don’t sit there and try to paint yourself as the victim here, Gabriel. It’s not like you’ve never killed people,” Sam said. There was a lot of that speech that he had to wrap his head around before responding, but he wasn’t going to let Gabriel pretend like he was a saint. 

“Right. Yeah. I’m so horrible because I kill maybe a couple dozen people per generation that make it their life’s work to kill as many people as possible. How about we check out some numbers? Let’s go with the last ten years. I’ve killed seventeen people and as a result of those deaths only, saved three hundred that would have died at their hands. That’s not even counting the people that I’ve turned off that path when they still had a chance at redemption. You, your brother, and your pet angel, have saved six hundred and nineteen people, and caused the death of eighteen million, nine hundred and seventy four thousand six hundred and twelve people. But I’m the bad guy,” Gabriel snarled. “Just leave me the fuck alone, Sam. At least let me die in peace.”


	2. Chapter 2

As Gabriel stormed out of the room, Sam just sat there in shock. No way could those numbers be right. Gabriel had to be wrong. He just had to be. Sam considered it for a moment and tried to find a way to prove it. Something that he could take back to Gabriel and tell him that he was full of it, but he couldn’t. He thought about the death tolls when Lucifer was walking the earth. That was on him. Now the death tolls with Amara. Also on him. The Leviathan. That one was on Cas. A lot of people died when the angels fell. Also on Cas. Dean had done quite a bit of damage as a demon. Dean had been the one to cause Abaddon to be released so that caused quite a few deaths. Dean had killed Death and the reapers went rather nuts after that. Dean had also allowed Gadreel to possess Sam killing dozens of people in the process. All in all, Gabriel’s numbers just might be right and that thought made him sick. 

He tried to push his mind to another track, so he considered everything else Gabriel had said. His motives for everything he’d done. If all that was true…no wonder Gabriel was pissed. And his assertions that he’d been working behind the scenes for the last five years since they’d thought he’d died was a real kicker too and Sam couldn’t help but wonder what all he had done. He knew he had to talk to Gabriel. He had to get more insight into the archangel. He could feel the hatred that he had always nurtured for the archangel fading, and he had no idea what to say or where to start, but he couldn’t stand the idea of Gabriel thinking so little of him. Even if it was true. That just mean that he would have to fix it. He would have to find a way to make amends. Dean was gone, so he would have to make amends for both of them. 

He went searching out Gabriel and found him sitting cross-legged in the middle of the ritual room. “Gabriel, can we…what are you doing?” Sam asked curiously as he saw Gabriel practically blinking. He would start to glow for a moment before it would go out and then start back up.

Gabriel sighed heavily. “What part of leave me alone didn’t you understand? Or is dying in peace not something that’s allowed around here?” 

“I just want to talk,” Sam said hopefully. 

“Fine. It’s not like I’m doing any good here,” Gabriel said getting up and walking out of the room headed for a more comfortable locale. 

“What were you doing?” Sam asked again, following behind him. 

“I was trying to connect to my grace again. At least enough to hop to another dimension or fly to a world that isn’t doomed,” Gabriel said accusingly. “Unfortunately, I’m completely shorted out and it’s not likely to resolve before we all die.”

“Dean is going to fix it. He should be taking Amara down any minute,” Sam told him. 

Gabriel just snorted. “Like that’ll fix it.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Look. Sam. When creating things on such a cosmic scale, you have to put a part of yourself into it. Which means that when the creator dies, everything they created dies with them. My father is dying, and killing Amara isn’t going to change that.”

“But then…so you’re saying the entire universe is going to die?” Sam asked nearly choking. It was bad enough causing the death of one world, but everything? Everywhere?

“No. Not the entire universe. Just the parts he created. We archangels did our part too. Those worlds. Those galaxies will be just fine. Well, Raphy’s have already gone up in smoke, but mine, and Mikey’s, and Luci’s…they’re still alive and kicking. At least until we go down with this world. Mikey’s trapped in the cage, so he’ll be down. I’m trapped here too, so mine will be gone too. Luci…he might have a chance to get away. It depends on how badly Auntie Amara hurt him.”

“Wait…so when Cas killed Raphael…”

“Every world he created died with him. Every sun he built went supernova. I didn’t count those deaths against your totals by the way. If I had, the numbers would have been infinitely higher. I was only counting the deaths on this world,” Gabriel added. 

“So, there’s nothing that can be done. At all. The world is really going to end,” Sam said dropping onto the couch and putting his head in his hands. 

“Short of Amara deciding to play nice and heal Dad, no. But I don’t think that’s very likely, so yeah. The world is ending. Good job,” Gabriel said sarcastically. “And so are hundreds of other worlds. I should have just let you idiots carry out the apocalypse. At least that would only have killed this one,” Gabriel said self-deprecatingly. 

“You say you tried to stop the apocalypse, but why not just tell us what was coming. Why not tell us how bad it would be if we didn’t listen. Tell us what not to do,” Sam asked brokenly. 

“Like it would have done any good?” Gabriel scoffed. “I did warn you. As clearly as I could without you thinking I was full of it. Even if you did believe me, which you and I both know you never would have, you would have done whatever the hell you wanted anyway. You were warned…very bluntly…about just how bad it would be if you removed that mark from your brother. You were warned by multiple people. More than once. Even Death himself tried to tell you, and you just did it anyway. You think you know better and damn anyone who tries to tell you differently.”

“I’m sorry,” Sam whispered, almost inaudibly, as the weight of guilt threatened to crush him. 

“Right. Sorry. You think sorry changes anything? You think it fixes things? No. If I handed you a gun and told you that if you point it at that kid and pull the trigger it’ll kill him, and you do it anyway, you don’t get to be sorry. You made a choice. A fully informed choice at that. You decided that your brother’s life was more important than the rest of the world. A choice that you’ve made more than once at that. And so has he. And countless people have paid for that choice. You decide who lives and who dies, and you selfishly make sure everyone else does the dying, and now you’re sorry? Ha!”

Gabriel ignored the wracking sobs coming from the hunter. He might have a little more sympathy if he wasn’t about to die too. And with him, all of his worlds. All of his people. No. He’d said nothing that wasn’t true. It was time for Sam to wise up and face the music. It was past time for someone to hold him accountable. Maybe if he had done this years ago they wouldn’t be in this position now. “You wanted to know what all I’ve done behind the scenes right?” Gabriel asked, knowing exactly why Sam had come after him. “I pulled you out of that church and put you in that plane. I talked Death into giving up his ring long before Dean got there. I pushed Luci back into the recesses of his mind so that you could take control. I found the leviathan tablet, had it dug up, and got it into your hands. I brought your grandfather here, so you could find this place and was about to take care of the demon that hitched a ride too, but you neutralized her nicely. I never dreamed that you would be stupid enough to dig her up again. I created the alternate way into heaven after you morons went poking at the scribe and then Cassie helped him make the angels fall. Honestly, did none of you stop to think that maybe he had been banished for a reason? I helped you find the demon tablet too, so you could close the gates of hell and get new goodies to use against them, but once again, your lives were more important than everyone else’s and you couldn’t go through with it. Are you sensing a pattern here?” 

“Gabriel…please…stop,” Sam sobbed. 

“You’re the one who wanted to talk, Sam. I told you to leave me alone and let me die in peace,” Gabriel said pointedly. “You wanted to dredge all this up.” He paused a moment to let that sink in before he said. “Now I’m going to meditate for a while before I die. I suggest you let me,” he said as he walked out, ignoring the way his own heart was breaking for Sam in the process.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam had mostly managed to pull himself together, at least on the outside by the time Dean returned and thankfully for him, Dean assumed the little bit of upset he was still showing was due to thinking him dead. “Dean! You’re alive?!” Sam asked shocked. 

“Yeah, Sammy. I am. And you wouldn’t believe what just happened,” Dean said, as he gave Sam a rundown of Chuck and Amara making nice and her healing him before they rode off into the sunset. “And she offered to give me some kind of gift for my help, but I turned her down flat. Who knows what she would think an appropriate gift would be and I wouldn’t trust anything coming from her in the slightest.”

“That seems smart,” Sam told him, head reeling over the news. The world was saved again. After all their screwups the world was saved again. “I need to…go tell Gabriel,” Sam said hesitantly. 

“The douche woke up? Figures. Once everything is said and done, he’d get off his lazy ass. Was probably just pretending to sleep,” Dean muttered. 

“Shut up!” Sam snapped at him. He couldn’t stand hearing Dean talk like that about Gabriel. Not now. Not when he knew…

“Geez Sammy. What’s your issue?” Dean said annoyed. 

“Just…leave Gabriel alone,” Sam said weakly, not really up for going into everything right now. He left the room after that comment before Dean could say anything more and went in search of Gabriel, finding him in the library this time, once again sitting cross-legged on the floor. “Um…Gabriel?” Sam said hesitantly, and Gabriel turned to look at him, having already removed all traces of his own tears from his face. “I just thought you might like to know…everything’s gonna be okay.”

“Yeah. I can tell. Looks like you got lucky again,” he said scathingly. “Once I get my powers back, I’ll be out of your hair.”

“Do you…have to go?” Sam asked, even while wondering what kind of masochist he was to want Gabriel to stay after all that. 

“You actually want me to stay?” Gabriel asked incredulously, wondering the same thing. 

“I…yeah…I…I guess. I just…I want to be better. I don’t want anyone else to die because of me, and I was hoping…”

“That I would be your conscience?” Gabriel scoffed. “Like I’m gonna set myself up for that kind of failure.” Like he was going to allow himself to be around Sam any more than he had to be, more like. It was so hard being around him, knowing that he could never have him. Even if Sam would be up for the idea, he was such a destructive force, Gabriel would be forced to watch him destroy the world and be powerless to stop it and he couldn’t do that. It was hard enough loving him from a distance as he did so much damage. The guilt he would feel over every death Sam caused if he was actually with him would crush him. 

“You won’t fail. I swear. I’ll…I’ll listen to you. Do everything you say…”

“Are you even listening to yourself, Sam?” Gabriel asked, almost managing to be amused by what Sam was offering. 

“I am. I don’t care. I’ll do whatever it takes to not have any more deaths on shoulders. I’d do whatever it took to make up for the ones that already are, if there were anything that could. You won’t fail, Gabriel. Just, please,” Sam begged. He didn’t know if he could take anymore. If Gabriel walked away now, then it would mean that Sam was irredeemable. 

“You wanna know why I would fail, Sam?” Gabriel asked wearily. “Because the right course of action never even dawns on you. It’s never even a thought in your head. The idea of even looking for a peaceful solution, is so foreign to you, that you’d have more luck cutting off your arm than actually not causing destruction.”

“We’ve found peaceful solutions before,” Sam protested. 

“Only when they were shoved down your throat. Only when the ones proposing it were holding you over a barrel. And even then, you fought it all the way. Did it ever dawn on you to try to talk to me before trying to kill me?” Gabriel asked. “What about Lucifer or Michael? Did you ever even consider trying to talk to them? No. You didn’t. Because you’re right any anything against you is wrong, and nothing else matters.”

“Talking to Lucifer and Michael? What you think we could have stopped the apocalypse by talking?” Sam asked incredulously. 

“Maybe. Maybe not. But you could have at least tried. How did this situation get resolved in the end? I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it wasn’t by force,” Gabriel said pointedly. 

“I…no…it…it wasn’t,” Sam said as Gabriel’s point started to dawn on him. If Amara could be talked down…if she could be reasoned with and make amends…how could he say Michael and Lucifer wouldn’t have been. If someone had just talked to Amara sooner, maybe they wouldn’t have gotten this far. “She just…wanted her brother back.” Sam felt the sick feeling welling up in his gut again. How could they have been so wrong for so long?

“I’m not trying to be difficult or criticize here, but…why didn’t you try to talk to them?” Sam asked, keeping all traces of judgement out of his voice, and just showing open curiosity. 

“There is a lot of history there Sam. For all of us. I wouldn’t have been able to do much good, and it would have meant revealing that I was alive. In the end, I did try to talk to Luci. Once him knowing I was alive was inevitable, I tried. But to even get a chance, I had to get you out of there, so he would stop focusing on his vessel and listen to me. To get you out of there, I had to take an aggressive stance and Luci has never been good at dealing with a position of weakness. I was doomed before I started, but I did try,” Gabriel told him. 

“Okay. Yeah. That makes sense,” Sam admitted. “But you think I could have done better?” 

“Of course, you could have. All Luci ever wanted was to be understood. He wanted someone in his corner. It couldn’t have been me because of everything that happened before, but it could have been you. And Michael…Mikey was desperate. He just wanted to be whole again. If someone could have shown him another way…he might have taken it. But these are the things that never even occur to you and your brother. You bulldoze through the world, taking down everything in your path and setting off chain reactions that destroy everything else. I don’t think you CAN be any different,” Gabriel told him. 

“We can!” Sam said quickly. “I can,” he amended, not completely sure about Dean. “I WILL,” he vowed. 

“Then you can do it without my help,” Gabriel told him. He didn’t buy it for a second. 

“Gabriel, wait. Please. Just…can you tell me what happened with Michael and Lucifer? What does he want understood? Why is Michael desperate?” 

“Nope. Not my story to tell and not my questions to answer,” Gabriel told him. 

“But…Michael is still in the cage and Lucifer…I have no idea where he is,” Sam told him. 

“That’s the thing, Sam. Bulldozers are easy. They just knock down anything in their path. Finding a way gently and carefully to navigate without doing too much damage…that’s the hard part,” Gabriel told him. 

“If…If I can prove I can do it…will you come back?” Sam asked hopefully. 

“Why?” Gabriel asked. If Sam wanted a conscience and then proved that he could do without one, what was the point.

“Because…” Sam cut himself off. Telling Gabriel how he felt was out of the question, but what kind of answer could he possibly give to that. “Because…” he tried again but his mind was drawing a blank. “I don’t know,” he said defeated. “But will you?” 

“I’ll consider it,” Gabriel told him, knowing he was full of shit. He knew exactly why he wanted Gabriel to come back. He just wasn’t willing to share. Gabriel had felt himself getting stronger and stronger since the world stopped dying. Maybe it was the distance from the source of his troubles or maybe Amara had fixed that too before she left, but it wouldn’t be long before he could get out of here, and far away from Sam. 

“Thank you,” Sam said gratefully. Just the fact that Gabriel would consider it meant that maybe he wasn’t a lost cause. Maybe, just maybe he could do this and get Gabriel back in his life. The archangel wasn’t closing the door. “I’ll just…leave you to your meditating then.” Gabriel nodded, and Sam left. The next time Sam went looking for him, he was nowhere to be found.


	4. Chapter 4

When Sam found Dean in the kitchen, he was immediately rounded on by his brother. “What the hell was that, Sam? Since when are we defending the archdouche?” 

“Since he was right,” Sam snapped. “Everything he’s done has been to try and keep us from ending the world, and he was right. We’ve done nothing but damage, that he’s been working his ass off to clean up, and he doesn’t deserve this shit.”

“What the hell is this WE crap?” Dean asked defensively. “YOU let Amara out. YOU let Lucifer out.”

“YOU trusted the king of hell and got turned into a demon. YOU let Gadreel take over my body and start killing people. YOU dug up Abaddon,” Sam shot back. 

“And you think that’s the same thing? You think that’s half as bad as what you’ve caused?” Dean snapped. 

“I didn’t say it was. I’m just saying that we’re both the problem,” Sam said trying to calm things down. “Almost nineteen million, Dean. That’s how many people have died because of us.”

“So, what does the archdouche suggest then?” Dean snarked.

“That we need to stop trying to solve everything with force and actually try peaceful solutions,” Sam told him knowing that wouldn’t go over well but it needed to be said. 

Dean wasn’t having any of that though. No, if his brother thought the archdouche was better than him than he could have him. If he thought he was going to lay those deaths on Dean’s shoulders, he could shove it up his ass. “No, Sam. You’re the problem. Every MINOR mistake I’ve made was for you. Because of you. But yeah. You’re right. WE are a problem. Us together. So, you go play buddy buddy with the killers if you want because I’m out.”

“Dean…” Sam said desperate to stop him. 

“No, Sam. I can’t do this, anymore. You almost destroyed the world to save me. Every person that I’ve gotten killed has been to save you. This mess is cleaned up now, and we need to go our separate ways. You do your thing, and I’ll do mine and we just hope our paths don’t cross in the future.” 

“You’re serious?” Sam asked incredulously, following Dean to his room. 

“Damn straight, I’m serious,” Dean snapped. “If you think I’m gonna fall into this whole negotiating with monsters line, you must be nuts. You can keep the bunker. You’re the ‘man of letters’,” he sneered. “I’d much rather be out on the road anyway.” Dean finished throwing his stuff in his bag. “Have a nice life, Sammy. Lose my number.”

As Dean started up the Impala to drive away, he swallowed around the lump in his throat. He was doing the right thing. He knew he was. This break was necessary. They needed to split up before they caused any more damage. Now that this unfinished business was taken care of…it had come close. Too close, and it scared the hell out of him. He wasn’t going to let them destroy the world and if that meant walking away forever than so be it. He knew that Sam wouldn’t let him just say goodbye and leave though. It had to be like this. It was the only way. The fact that he was right was just the icing on the cake. Sam actually wanted to make nice with the monsters, and that was just the last straw. If not for the need to get away, he might have tried to talk him out of it, but no. This was as good a reason as any. Let the archdouche deal with Sam’s little crusade that he talked him into, and Dean would go do what he was meant to. Kill the bastards. 

As soon as Dean was out the door, Sam fell to the bed as if his strings had been cut. How much more could he lose? How much more could he bear? He considered just ending it all. Just removing himself from the equation…and the world. Only the desperate need to make amends…to prove that he could be better, stopped him from going there. He couldn’t go like this. The tears were still pouring down his cheeks when Cas returned about ten minutes later. “Sam,” Cas said sympathetically. “I’m sorry.”

It took a second for Sam to realize that Cas thought Dean was dead. He didn’t know about the resolution yet. “No, Cas. Dean is fine. He just…left,” Sam said heart-brokenly. 

“I don’t understand,” Cas said tilting his head in confusion. Sam brought him up to speed, telling him a little about Gabriel’s rants, the argument with Dean, and Dean packing up and leaving. “I see,” Cas said sadly. “I will attempt to find him. See if I can bring him back.”

Sam smiled sadly. He knew that it wouldn’t work. He had seen the determination in Dean’s face. He would never come crawling back now. He would make Cas choose, and there was no doubt who Cas would choose. Sam got up and pulled Cas into a hug. “Watch out for him, okay?”

“Always,” Cas promised, returning the hug rather awkwardly. 

After Cas left, Sam made his way back to his room. He would allow himself the rest of the day to wallow, then tomorrow he had to get to work. He had something to prove. To Gabriel. To Dean. Even to Cas. And especially to himself.

When he got up the next morning, he tried to figure out where to start. It seemed to him that the biggest problem right now was the fact that Lucifer was now running free again. That was probably why Gabriel had focused so much on him during their conversation. He had to try to talk Lucifer down, which probably wouldn’t be easy after being abandoned by his father yet again. But Gabriel had also mentioned Michael. Maybe Michael would be the key. But that would mean he’d have to get him on board first and keep him from going after Lucifer the second he was free, which might be easier said than done. He sat there for over an hour trying to figure out which way would be best. Which end of the problem to start with. 

He finally decided that Lucifer should be his first stop, if only because he was already free. He was out there doing damage now, and he had to find a way to get through to him. Then he could worry about Michael. If nothing else, he could talk Lucifer down from the ledge and get him to agree to a temporary cessation while he handled Michael. It would mean going down into the cage again, unfortunately, but he would deal. He would just need to make sure that Rowena would be on board, but he would cross that bridge when he came to it. It would probably be better to get some distance between them and this whole clusterfuck before asking for her help again anyway. 

No matter what he did, he just couldn’t get a lead though. He had searched high and low, but every time he thought he had him nailed down to a vessel, he would jump to another one. He got the closest when Lucifer was in Vince Vicente, but before he could make a move, Vince had ‘died’ at a comeback concert, and he was back to square one. It wasn’t until he caught on the news that Dean had been grabbed trying to assassinate the president that he realized that he had been Lucifer and he cursed. He called Rowena, only to find that Lucifer had been sent back to the cage, and figured that was for the best. At least then he could reason with them both together from a place where they couldn’t hurt anyone. He remembered what Gabriel had said about Lucifer not being good with talking from a position of weakness, but he hoped that they could get around that. 

Before he could get too far into that train of thought though, Rowena dropped another bombshell. Lucifer had a kid on the way, and the mom was in the hands of Cas. He told Rowena to stay handy. He might need her help, and was perfectly willing to bargain for it. First, he had to save that baby. He knew that Dean wouldn’t hesitate to kill it, and the mom if he absolutely had to, and had probably given Cas orders to that effect. His first thought was to get Dean out by any means necessary, but he stopped himself. No. That was part of the problem. He would worry about how to get Dean out later. First, there was an innocent to save. 

He tracked Cas’ phone to find out where he was before calling him, and he was told that she had disappeared. Apparently, she wasn’t into Dean’s plan of having the baby aborted. Sam couldn’t really blame her. Now he just had to find her before Cas did. Sam decided the easiest way to do that would be to set Cas on the problem of finding and rescuing Dean to give him that time. It would kill two birds with one stone. Plus, if he saved his child, Lucifer might be more willing to deal with him.


	5. Chapter 5

It took him almost more than two months to find Kelly, and just barely managed to save her from a demon and an angel in the process. She was terrified to come with him, but he managed to talk her into it and he rushed her under the bunker’s wards where they couldn’t be tracked. He hadn’t managed to kill the demon after all. It would be back, but now she was safe. “What do you want with me?” she asked worriedly, once they were inside. 

“I don’t want anything,” Sam assured her. “Other than to help keep you and your baby safe.”

“What are you?” she asked. She’d had so many things trying to kill her or use her by this point she was almost numb. 

“I’m a human. Like you. In fact, I’m sure you’ve met my brother Dean. He and I have a very different view of the world though. I would guess that he thinks that baby is already irredeemably evil and needs to be destroyed, but I don’t. I think it has just as much of a chance to be good as any other child does,” he assured her. The thought of Dean still hurt after all this time, but it might help him to gain her trust if they had some connection. Even a bad one. At least he’d learned that Dean was free now. Cas had called to let him know that he’d found him. 

“Even though it’s Lucifer’s baby? A…a Nephilim I think they called it?” she asked skeptically. 

“Yeah. Even then. I mean, yeah, the power it has scares me to death, but fear is no reason to allow an innocent baby to be killed. We’re under heavy wards here. Nothing save God himself can find us. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need,” he offered. 

“Thank you,” she said finally letting herself sag in relief, hand placed protectively over her baby bump. Sam looked at it curiously. He didn’t know much about pregnancy and all, but he knew that she shouldn’t be showing that much already. Not with a normal baby. He wondered how much faster a Nephilim would grow. He might be running out of time. Now that he had her secured and safe, it was time to put the rest of his plan into action. 

Crowley refused to help them get to the cage this time, but Rowena had no trouble going behind his back. Not once Sam offered her a rare and dark spellbook, with certain rules in place of course. He had come to learn that she wasn’t nearly as evil as she pretended to be. She wouldn’t hesitate to hurt someone that was a threat to her, but she didn’t go around torturing and killing innocents just because she could. She was essentially a knowledge hoarder. She wanted to know it all, be able to do it all, but not actually do it, so it was relatively easy to get her to agree to his rules and she smuggled him into hell and cast the same spell she had to allow him to communicate with Lucifer before. 

Much to Sam’s surprise, it wasn’t Lucifer that appeared though. It was Michael. “Michael? I was expecting Lucifer.”

“Lucifer has been gone for a long time. What do you want with him?” Michael asked harshly. He knew this was Lucifer’s vessel and him being here didn’t necessarily bode well. 

“I just wanted to talk to him. And to you, actually, but since you’re here I’ll talk to you first,” Sam said caught a little off guard. He would worry about where Lucifer was later. This was his chance to get through to Michael. 

“About what?” Michael asked suspiciously. 

“Shall we sit?” Sam asked, trying to make him more comfortable and he sat cross-legged on the ground himself. Michael narrowed his eyes at the hunter, but sat down himself. “What was the point of the whole apocalypse thing?” Sam asked, taking care to keep the judgement out of his voice. 

“Why do you care?” Michael asked. “You won.”

“I know, I did, but it dawned on me that I don’t even know why. I don’t know if it had to go down that way. I don’t know if you HAVE to be in there even,” Sam told him, hinting at an incentive for him if he cooperated. 

“You’re saying you’d let me out?” Michael asked incredulously. 

“I’m saying I would consider it. If we could talk this out. If we could find another solution.”

“And Lucifer?” Michael asked. 

“Will get the same option once we find him. I won’t allow the apocalypse to happen. I won’t allow anyone to destroy the world in any way, but if we can all find a way to walk away in peace, I’ll take it.”

“Lucifer doesn’t know the meaning of peace. Not anymore,” Michael said haunted. 

“What happened?” Sam asked sympathetically. 

“It was the mark,” Michael said. “None of us realized until it was too late. Until after he fell. I should have realized though. I felt him growing colder. More distant. Lucifer and I…we were twins. We were connected. When he fell…it was like a part of me was ripped away with him. Then Father locked him away and left. He left everything on me, and what was I supposed to do. I followed his plan. I figured if I could finish it…maybe he would come back.” Michael was only being so open about this because it might just be his ticket out of this hell. Even worse than being trapped here alone was being cut off from heaven’s light. It was pure torture every second of every day. He just wanted to go home. 

“Finish it meaning kill your brother…your twin…and destroy this world in the process?” Sam asked. 

“It wouldn’t have destroyed the whole world. Just some of it. Then we could rebuild with who was left without Lucifer’s taint. As far as killing Lucifer…it had to be done. He wasn’t what he once was. He was cold and cruel. He was an albatross around my neck. I couldn’t feel him much from the cage, but that presence was always there. A taint that I couldn’t shake. Once he was gone, I could be free. And then I could remember him how he once was. Full of laughter and light. What he became…he wasn’t my brother anymore.”

Sam considered that for a moment and he stopped to really think about their interactions with Lucifer this time around. Since Amara was released…since the mark lost it’s hold on him…he hadn’t been so bad. He hadn’t gone on any killing sprees, other than when he was vessel hopping, but maybe there were more reasons for that, that Sam didn’t know yet. He did know that Lucifer had been much easier to deal with, and more willing to help rather than hinder while he was in Cas. “And what if he could be that again?” Sam asked. 

“That mark will always have a hold on him for as long as it exists,” Michael said sadly. 

“The mark is gone now,” Sam told him. “Amara is released, and she and your father have made their peace. It’s not corrupting him anymore.” At least Sam didn’t think it was. It had stopped turning Dean when she was released so it would stand to reason that it wasn’t affecting Lucifer anymore either. He would guess the only thing affecting Lucifer now was the feelings of abandonment and betrayal. 

“Then he is free?” Michael asked, almost hopefully. 

“Maybe. I can’t be completely sure. It would involve speaking to him. I know the others affected by the mark aren’t anymore, so it stands to reason that he wouldn’t be. Also, your father made it clear that he doesn’t want the apocalypse now,” Sam told him. “My question is, are you willing to speak to him and make peace without trying to kill him?” 

“I will. If he can be brought home, I will take him back myself,” Michael told him earnestly. 

Sam nodded and turned to Rowena. “Let him out,” Sam told her. 

“You can’t be serious,” she said incredulously. She hadn’t been able to hear their conversation, but she knew who this was and why he was here. 

“I’m completely serious. Let him out,” Sam told her firmly, his tone alone making it clear that this was part of their deal. If she wanted that spellbook, then she would do as she was told. 

Rowena wasn’t stupid. “I want assurances that I’ll be left in peace if I do,” she said unwilling to budge on that issue. 

“You will,” Sam told her. 

“Not from you. From him,” she said looking at Michael. 

“I do not suffer a witch lightly, but for your assistance in this matter, I will leave you in peace so long as you do the same,” Michael told her. 

She scrutinized him for a moment before she nodded, and worked a modification to the spell, allowing Michael to step out of the cage, and Sam shielded his eyes as his grace rushed back into him and he began to glow. By the time the glow faded Rowena was gone.


	6. Chapter 6

Sam sighed and turned to Michael. “I hope you can get us out of here since my ride bailed?” 

“Of course,” Michael said reaching out his hand to Sam and transporting them to the cemetery where he had fallen into the cage since that was the point on Earth that he was most familiar with. As soon as they were back in this dimension, Michael stiffened. “There is a Nephilim. But I can’t sense where.”

“That’s because it, and the mother, are under heavy wards. My wards,” Sam told him, his tone making it clear that they were under his protection. He hadn’t wanted to have this conversation so soon, but he didn’t realize that Michael would be able to sense it despite the wards. 

“Your brother and Castiel, I assume?” Michael said with a wince. 

Sam blinked a moment at that assumption before he realized that Michael was working from five year old information, so that would have been the reasonable assumption at that time. Still might be reasonable if either of them ever managed to get their heads out of their asses, but, “No. Lucifer’s child actually.”

“You realize Nephilim are forbidden,” Michael said hesitantly. 

“Why?” Sam asked pointedly. If he could give him a good enough reason, he might be willing to find a compromise, but if it just was, he was putting his foot down. 

“Their power…it rivals Father’s. They are dangerous,” Michael told him. 

“Is that the only reason? Because they are too powerful? Because that could be a good thing just as easily as it could be a bad one,” Sam pointed out. 

Michael stopped to consider the idea. “You are correct. However, if it becomes a bad one, the Nephilim will be very difficult to stop.”

“So, you propose to kill an innocent baby because you are afraid of what it MIGHT do?” Sam asked pointedly.

“I said nothing about killing the child,” Michael told him. He hadn’t gotten that far in his thinking yet, honestly. The fact that it was forbidden meant that he had never been in the situation to consider it. Now that it was, though…that was different. He was torn on the issue himself, but from Sam’s stance, he could tell that the hunter had taken the protection of the child seriously, so he would work with that for now. “I don’t know what would be the best course of action with regards to this issue, but since you have decided your course, I will work within it. I will allow the child to exist until or unless it becomes a threat. If it does, THEN I will deal with that threat.”

“Good enough,” Sam told him. “As long you give it a fair chance. It is your brother’s child, after all,” he pointed out. 

“It will have it’s chance,” Michael promised. 

“Now that’s settled…are you able to find your brother? He was supposed to have been returned to the cage, but if he wasn’t…”

“I can sense him. He too is under heavy wards, but not quite as strong as yours. I can get a general location,” Michael told him. “He is in hell, but not in the cage.” 

“Crowley,” Sam said distastefully. “That explains why he wouldn’t help us get to the cage. He knew that Lucifer wasn’t in there and didn’t want us to find out. That bastard.”

“If he is being held prisoner, then he is well restrained. I must admit that I am hesitant to break him out without assurances that he will come in peace. Not after my vow to you that this world would be protected,” Michael told him. 

“That’s probably a smart idea. Can you get us in? Give us the chance to talk to him and come to some kind of agreement before we release him?” 

“He will never acknowledge any agreement made from a point of weakness. He will promise anything and then disregard everything. The only way to deal with him will be as equals,” Michael told him. 

“Then what do you suggest?” Sam asked. 

“I will get you in. He will be restrained, but you are human. He will feel less threatened with only you. You can speak to him, ascertain if the mark is still affecting him, make sure he is willing to treat with me in peace, and if he is, you will release him, or I will come in to do so if you are unable and we can speak from there,” Michael suggested. 

“It’s risky,” Sam said thoughtfully. “But a lot less risky than him getting loose on his own, and he will, eventually. Okay. We’ll do it your way. You get me in and watch my back.”

“This Crowley…he is an ally of yours?” Michael asked, wondering if it would be better or worse to kill him. 

“Yes and no. Crowley is always out for himself. When his interests line up with ours, he comes in handy, and he does keep control in hell. There are far worse demons that could be in charge down there. I would say, keep him alive if you can, but don’t worry overmuch if he forces your hand,” Sam said with a shrug, knowing what Michael was asking. 

“I see the wisdom in your position, and will do as you ask,” Michael told him. He too, saw the value of keeping control in hell. Especially given how many portals were open between hell and earth these days. If he could kill every demon in existence and close it forever he would, but that just wasn’t feasible. If for no other reason than because there were always more souls to replenish the ranks, even if he could manage to get them all. There was a reason heaven never went to full war with hell. He could fortify a position there though, and would have to for their plan to work. 

Then again, they may not have to. Sam’s phone was ringing. “Crowley,” Sam said as he answered. 

“What the hell did you do, moose?” Crowley asked heatedly. 

“What are you talking about?” Sam asked, fishing to see how much Crowley knew. 

“Every alarm in hell went off when the cage was empty. There are only two people I know STUPID enough to spring a jailbreak, and your brother’s in the dark and that leaves you. WHAT did you do?!”

“Sprung a jailbreak,” Sam said smugly. “And imagine my surprise to find that Lucifer isn’t in the cage. What do you know about that Crowley?” 

“What makes you think I know anything about that?” The king of hell was now the one on the defensive. 

“Because there’s only one person stupid enough to try and hold Lucifer prisoner. Oh, and Michael can still sense his brother and knows he’s in hell.”

“What do you want?” Crowley asked through gritted teeth. If there was a free archangel out there with an interest in Lucifer, he wouldn’t be able to stand against him. 

“We want a conversation with Lucifer, and possibly to take him with us, depending on the results of that conversation,” Sam told him. 

“You can’t honestly think I’d allow that,” Crowley asked incredulously. 

“Here’s the deal, Crowley. We’re coming. Like it or not. You know as well as I do that neither you nor any of your minions can take on a fully powered archangel, so you can let us in or we can do it by force. Your choice,” Sam said with a smirk, knowing that he had the treacherous little demon over a barrel. 

There was a long moment of silence before Crowley said, “Fine. Give me an hour to clear the area,” and then hung up. 

“You handled him well,” Michael said looking at Sam with a new respect. 

“Unfortunately, I’ve had a lot of practice,” Sam said. “The real question is whether he’s actually clearing the area or setting up a trap.”

“He would be foolish to try for a trap,” Michael told him. 

“He would be just as foolish to let Lucifer go knowing that he will hold a grudge for everything Crowley has done to him,” Sam pointed out. 

“You may have a point. It is no matter. There is no trap a demon could spring that could harm me, and you have my word that I will restore any damage done to you if I am unable to prevent it,” Michael promised. Not only was this human instrumental in getting his brother back, but only he could find the Nephilim. Plus, he was rather grateful for being released from the cage.


	7. Chapter 7

While they were waiting, Sam took the opportunity to call Kelly and make sure she was good and didn’t need anything. He quickly made a list of the foods she had been craving today, unable to resist curling his nose up at some of them, but refrained from commenting. He told her he would be back in a couple hours with at least one and maybe two guests. After assuring her that they wouldn’t harm her or the baby, he hung up and they got ready to go. 

Thankfully, Crowley hadn’t sprung a trap and in fact, was nowhere to be seen when they appeared in the throne room. They did catch a couple demons trying to sneak around and find out what Crowley was hiding, but Michael made short work of them. He didn’t step foot inside the room, simply unlocking the door for Sam, and stepping out of sight. Sam stepped in and couldn’t help his gasp at the position Lucifer was in. He walked over and pulled the ball gag out of his mouth, but didn’t move to release anything else. “Sammy! So nice to see you. I see I’m being allowed visitors now,” Lucifer said genially, and Sam couldn’t stop his lips from twitching in amusement. He had never realized how much Lucifer and Gabriel were alike before that moment. 

“Actually, I might be here for a jailbreak, depending on you,” Sam told him, sitting on the floor to make Lucifer feel like he had more control over the situation despite being chained up. 

“And what exactly do I have to do to earn that honor?” Lucifer asked skeptically. “And if you say, go into the cage, no thanks. I’ll take my chances here.”

“No. That’s not what I want. I want to know why,” Sam said. 

“Why what? There are many whys for many things,” Lucifer told him. 

“Let’s start with why all the deaths once you left Cas,” Sam asked. That was his big sticking point at the moment.

“I was trying to find a vessel that would hold me. And keep ahead of Crowley hunting me. I was too weak to fly far, so I was forced to make do with what I could find and was, unfortunately, burning through them too fast since my grace was trying to recharge at the same time.”

“What happened at the nightclub? You were in Vince for a while. You can’t tell me that he managed to burn out just as you hit the stage,” Sam asked. 

“You don’t know?” Lucifer asked, surprised. Sam shook his head. “Your brother, his pet angel and pet demon showed up. They ruined the show and tried to attack me. I was forced to use too much power to defend myself and burnt through that vessel too, so it was back to the vessel hopping.”

“And the massacre at the church?” Sam asked. 

“I took over the bishop, as I’m sure you knew. They found me out though. I would have just left them alive, but somehow they managed to get their hands on an old enochian spell that would have killed me as weak as I was, so they didn’t leave me a choice,” Lucifer told him. 

“You just have an answer for everything don’t you?” Sam asked narrowing his eyes at him. 

“Even when I was being corrupted by the mark, I was never a mindless killer, Sam. Do I feel sorry for the deaths? Not particularly. Why should I? But they weren’t just killed for my amusement,” Lucifer said honestly. 

“Why wouldn’t you feel sorry for them?” Sam asked, tamping down his instincts to write Lucifer off after that statement. He was working very hard to be better than he was, and that meant getting all sides before passing judgement. 

“These humans…they are my father’s children. They are the ones he cared for so much more than us. He threw us all away, and only came back to save them from Amara. Even after his speech to me and his promises and his obviously false apologies, he still abandoned us. Abandoned ME.”

“And you think that if you become enough of a threat he might come back again?” Sam guessed. 

“I don’t care if he comes back,” Lucifer snapped. “I just want to destroy what he loves.”

“No, you don’t,” Sam told him. “If you did, you could have done that before Dean tracked you down. You could have done a whole lot more damage when you were in the president. You’re hurt, and you feel betrayed, and probably lonely. If the mark was still affecting you, you probably would have destroyed everything just because you could, but I think you’re at war with yourself now,” Sam said finally starting to figure Lucifer out. “You don’t have the evil driving you anymore, but you have nothing else without it.”

“What do you know?” Lucifer said heatedly, losing his geniality when Sam hit a little too close to home. 

“What if I told you that you could have something?” Sam asked. “What if I told you that you could get your brother back? That you could go home. That everything could be like it was. All you have to do is just not take things out on humanity anymore.”

“Like you could promise any of that,” Lucifer scoffed. “Michael is in the cage. Gabriel and Raphael are dead, and the rest of the angels in heaven would as soon kill me as look at me as they already proved.”

“Michael’s not in the cage anymore,” Sam told him. “We talked, and he agreed to drop the whole apocalypse business and just talk to you. To try and work things out, if you will do the same. If you will go in peace, I’ll set you free,” Sam promised. 

“That’s all? I promise not to kill anyone, and you let me go?” Lucifer asked skeptically. He had promised that before after all, and Sam hadn’t believed him. 

“That and talk to Michael. You have a child on the way to consider, after all,” Sam played his trump card. 

“What do you know of my son?” Lucifer asked with narrowed eyes. 

“I know that he’s safe, and I will make sure that he stays that way,” Sam told him. 

“IF I play nice,” Lucifer guessed. 

“No. He will stay safe no matter what. Telling you where he is and letting you raise him depends on you playing nice. I won’t hand him over to be turned into a monster,” Sam said firmly, not willing to negotiate on that point. He took Michael’s warnings to heart on that issue. 

“Then I will do as you ask,” Lucifer said, fully understanding the hunter’s point, but not liking the fact that he would have to prove himself to get access to his own son. 

Sam nodded and went to remove his restraints, but as soon as he touched them they burned his skin. “Michael? A little help?” he called. 

Michael stepped into the room and stopped short at the sight of his brother chained up like an animal. He looked deeper and he could see that Sam was right in that the mark no longer had a hold on him. His grace was clean and bright once more. That meant that he had a chance. There was a lot of damage to undo, but it could be undone with time and work and understanding. Lucifer too didn’t say a word as he stared at the brother he hadn’t seen in so long. He was beyond words. It wasn’t until Sam cleared his throat that Michael galvanized himself into movement and quickly removed the restraints. 

Lucifer stood slowly, still not taking his eyes off of Michael until his brother pulled him into a hug. Lucifer froze for a moment, not quite sure what to do, but then the dam broke, and he wrapped his arms around his brother tightly, holding on for dear life. He pulled back and looked him in the eyes, reaching out a hand to his cheek. “Michael…” he said longingly. 

“I’m here, Luc,” Michael said running a hand through Lucifer’s hair bringing it to rest on the back of his head and pulling their foreheads together. “I’m here.”

“But we really should be elsewhere,” Sam pointed out, more than a little nervous about hanging out in the middle of hell. 

“Yes. Of course,” Michael said, reaching one hand to Sam and flying them all back to the cemetery again before pulling back from Lucifer. “I apologize. I am unsure where you would like to go and am not familiar with much of this world,” he told Sam. 

“If you can get us near Lebanon, I can get us the rest of the way to where we need to be,” Sam told him. 

When Lucifer saw the confusion on Michael’s face he said, “I can take us there. You are still in the bunker?” Sam nodded. “I will not be able to get inside without an invitation now that I am in a different vessel, but I can take us near there.” He offered. 

Sam had been waffling about letting him in, especially with Kelly there, but the greeting between Michael and Lucifer decided him on that one. There were specially warded rooms that they would need further invitations to enter that he could put Kelly in if things got out of hand while he kicked them both out of the wards, so he would take the chance.


	8. Chapter 8

Sam had Lucifer take them into the town first. He had some shopping to do. He led them into the supermarket and very soon came to regret it. Michael was looking around in fascination garnering them more than a few strange looks. “This is a place of commerce?” Michael asked curiously. At the same time, Lucifer started picking up jars off the shelf and reading the labels confusedly. 

Sam sighed and grabbed a jar out of Lucifer’s hands to put back on the shelf. “Michael, quit looking around like you’ve never seen a store before and Lucifer…” he grabbed another jar out of his hands. “Quit touching things. Just act normal. Please,” he said wearily. 

“They’re touching things,” Lucifer said petulantly looking at the other people in the store.

“They’re doing so because they’re deciding what to buy. Not just grabbing at everything like a toddler,” Sam pointed out and turned to see Michael bending over leaning close to read the ingredients on a random jar of cocoa mix and rolled his eyes. That was drawing more attention than the grabbing of everything. 

“Humans actually put all these…foreign compounds into their body?” Michael asked disgustedly. “After my father created all that good food for them to eat?” 

“This really isn’t the place for this conversation,” Sam sighed as he looked around to see people skirting around them giving them a wide berth. Going shopping with two archangels was a nightmare, he decided. They finally managed to make it out of there half an hour later and were making their way back to the bunker. Lucifer flew them there, and Sam invited them both in, allowing them past the wards. 

Kelly met them in the entryway, digging into the bag Sam was holding for the ice cream as Sam chuckled. “Kelly, this is Michael and this is…well…”

“Luke,” Lucifer cut him off. “My name is Luke. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Kelly mumbled around the mouthful of ice cream she’d already shoveled in, too hungry to even notice the way ‘Luke’s’ eyes never left her belly. 

Once she had turned and gone back to her room, taking the entire container of ice cream with her, Sam turned to Lucifer. “Luke?” he asked incredulously. 

“What? You want to tell a devout girl like her that her housemate is Lucifer himself, not to mention the fact that he’s the father of her baby?” Lucifer asked. 

“You plan to hide it from her?” Sam asked, seeing Lucifer’s point but not thinking it was a good idea. 

“I suppose that depends on how long we are going to be here and how much contact I’m permitted with her,” Lucifer said with a shrug. “At the very least we can break it to her gently.”

“That’s very…considerate…of you,” Sam said suspiciously. 

“Well she is carrying my child. I understand large shocks and stress are rather counterproductive to the process,” Lucifer said matter-of-factly. 

Sam just nodded. He could actually understand that. If Lucifer suddenly became a nice guy overnight, he would be far more suspicious, but he was trying. Michael decided to take the opportunity to turn to Lucifer. “We should talk.”

Sam made himself scarce. He would step in to mediate if he needed to, but for the time being he would let them at least try to handle it themselves. Over the next few days, he often jumped in to try to mediate, but always ended up ducking flying objects. Things never got physical between them. No powers were thrown around, not really even any death threats, but the constant non-stop bickering was driving him to distraction, so he finally decided to call for help. He went into the ritual room where the heaviest wards were so that Gabriel wouldn’t be sensed if he didn’t want to be and called for the archangel. When he arrived Sam breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh thank god. You have to help me. Your brothers are driving me insane!” 

Gabriel blinked at him for a second. “Brothers? Plural? Cassie and who?” 

“No, Cas and Dean left right after you did last time. I mean Michael and Lucifer,” Sam said tiredly. 

No sooner than he finished speaking the raised voices started to carry down the hall. “I asked you to walk away. Even with the mark pulling at me, I didn’t want to hurt you!”

“I was doing what you would have wanted!” Michael shot back. 

“That’s not what I wanted! I told you what I wanted!” 

“I meant the real you. The you from before. What that you would have wanted,” Michael protested. 

“That doesn’t even make sense!” Lucifer yelled. 

Gabriel laughed and rolled his eyes, muffling his grace so that he wouldn’t be sensed. “Watch and learn Samsquatch,” he said as he strolled out of the room, following the raised voices. He crept quietly into the living room and it said a lot as to how deeply involved in their argument they were that they didn’t notice him as he crept up and smashed their faces together. The second their lips met, the argument was over and their arms came around each other and they were kissing each other desperately. 

Sam just stood there staring open-mouthed until Gabriel grabbed his arm and they crept back the way they came. Once they were back in the ritual room, Gabriel couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the look on Sam’s face. “But…but…they’re brothers…”

Gabriel brought his laughter under control enough to answer him. “When it comes to angels, brother and sister are more terms of affection. I mean, we all have the same father so in that way we’re all brothers and sisters, but it’s not like with humans. I mean, in heaven all we have are brothers and sisters, so if we want to form relationships those are our only options. Lucifer and Michael…they’re two halves of the same whole. That’s why the fall affected them so much.”

“So that’s why they’ve been bickering so much? Sexual frustration?” Sam asked incredulously. 

“Oh, they always bicker. Not quite to that degree mind you, but it’s always there. If I had to guess I’d say they both wanted to know where they stood on that issue and kept riling each other up waiting for something to give,” Gabriel said with a shrug. 

Sam could understand that. Hell, if he had realized the full scope of the situation he would have done that days ago. “So, I’m doing better right? I got them talking and all. Got the Nephilim here and protected. Haven’t killed anything since I last saw you, well unless you count the two demons that Michael killed when we were springing Lucifer.”

“Why do you care so much what I think?” Gabriel asked confused. He could understand Sam not wanting any more deaths on his conscience, but it seemed like Gabriel’s opinion mattered to him just as much as that. 

“I…um…” Sam looked away and blushed. “Never mind.”

Gabriel just shrugged. “What were you saying about Dean and Cas leaving?”

“Yeah. Dean…um…he decided that my new way of going about things wasn’t for him, so he went off on his own. Cas…well…”

“Is stuck so far up Deano’s ass that he can’t see daylight?” Gabriel finished. 

Sam laughed. “Yeah. Something like that.”

“So, you’ve been going it alone?” Gabriel asked. 

“Yeah. It’s not so bad usually. Well not unless I’m going against Dean and Cas directly,” Sam said with his own shrug. 

“Going against them?” Gabriel asked curiously. 

“Yeah. I kinda took the Nephilim and the mom right out from under their noses before they could kill them. They don’t know I sprung Michael or Lucifer, but they were working pretty hard on getting Lucifer back to the cage when I did, so…yeah. They’d probably be pretty pissed if they knew.”

“They don’t even know?” Gabriel raised his eyebrows. 

“Nope. Dean…he refuses to even speak to me anymore and Cas…well I’ve only talked to him once since they left, so…”

Gabriel was taken a bit aback at that. He hadn’t realized that Sam was quite that alone. He was actually impressed that he’d managed. After the creepy co-dependency he’d seen between the brothers, he couldn’t believe that Sam had actually let Dean walk away rather than caving. Maybe there was hope for him yet. “You’re doing good,” Gabriel finally admitted, giving him the ‘belly rub’ he’d asked for earlier, and Sam beamed at him. 

“You wanna stick around for a while?” Sam asked hopefully. 

“Nah. Not while my brothers are here. Kinda still flying under the radar, ya know?” Gabriel told him. 

“Maybe you could take me somewhere and we could hang out for a while?” Sam suggested. 

Gabriel narrowed his eyes at the hunter, wondering what he was playing at before it dawned on him. The way he’d been so eager for Gabriel to stick around before, looking for his approval, wanting to spent time with him…he wanted an answer one way or another though and he wasn’t taking another step until he got one. “Why?” 

Sam shrugged. “Just because,” he said sheepishly. 

“If you can’t give me an answer, I’m leaving,” Gabriel warned. Sam opened and closed his mouth a few times before his shoulders sagged and he shook his head, so Gabriel left. If Sam couldn’t ask for what he wanted, then he wasn’t going to get it. Simple as that. He still thought it was a bad idea to get involved with the hunter anyway, so it was no skin off his back.


	9. Chapter 9

Sam blinked at the spot Gabriel disappeared from with a heavy heart. He just couldn’t go there. Not yet. He wanted nothing more than to spend time with Gabriel, but he felt like he had to prove he was worthy of it first and he wasn’t quite there yet. Maybe when he got Michael and Lucifer to get along well enough to go home. Or when the baby was born and accepted into heaven. Maybe then he might begin to be the slightest bit worthy. 

Sam made his way back to the living room to check on Lucifer and Michael only for his eyes to widen and a small squeak to slip past his lips before he slowly backed out, calculating the cost of a new couch in his head and how much pool he would have to hustle to buy one. He definitely wasn’t sitting on that one ever again. He turned and went back to his room, now feeling even more lonely than he had when Gabriel left. 

It was only a few days later, when Michael and Lucifer came to him hand in hand. “We’re gonna go back to heaven, now,” Michael said. 

“Both of you?” Sam asked hopefully. 

“Yes. It’s time Lucifer came home,” Michael said softly reaching out a hand and running it down Lucifer’s cheek. 

“You’ll take good care of Kelly until the baby is born right?” Lucifer ordered as much as asked. 

“Of course,” Sam told him. “Do you want me to pray when it’s time?” 

“Yes. Please. We’ll be checking in often until then, but if we’re not here, please do. We’ll have to take him home when he’s born after all,” Lucifer told him. 

“What about Kelly? Won’t she get a say?” Sam asked worriedly. 

Michael and Lucifer exchanged glances before Michael bit the bullet. “Birthing a nephilim as a human is always fatal, Sam. No human can survive the surge of power.”

“You mean…but…does she know?” Sam asked. 

“She does. I told her last week,” Michael said. “She still wishes to have the child if that’s your concern.” Not that Lucifer would have let her back out, he didn’t say. There was no need to open that can of worms when it didn’t matter anyway. 

“I…o-okay. Just…” Sam stammered. He supposed he could understand. Most parents would be willing to sacrifice themselves for their child. It was just a lot to take in. “I’ll take care of her,” he said, not sure what else he could say. 

“Thank you,” Michael and Lucifer said in unison. There was no doubt that they planned to raise this baby together. Sam absently wondered if the conception of the baby was ever a point of contention between them before deciding it was none of his business. If Michael didn’t know where babies came from it wasn’t Sam’s job to enlighten him. 

Once they had left, Sam smiled softly and prayed to Gabriel, who appeared rather quickly. “Sup Samsquatch?” Gabriel asked curiously. If he was honest with himself, now that he was calm and most importantly, going to stay alive, he did feel a bit guilty about being such an ass to Sam before, so he was doing his best to keep his cool now. Especially since Sam was making a genuine effort to be better than before. 

“Well, Michael and Lucifer just headed back to heaven and I figured since they aren’t here anymore, you might be a little more open to hanging around for a bit,” Sam dropped the bombshell around the invitation. 

“They…as in…BOTH of them? Went to heaven?” Gabriel asked incredulously. He’d half expected things to fall back apart after that first kiss that he initiated between them, but going back to heaven. Letting Lucifer back to heaven…he figured that would take years or more, if it ever happened. “How the hell did you pull that off?”

Sam sat down on the couch in a blatant invitation for Gabriel to do the same. “I didn’t do that much. I just broke the ice and got them talking. And of course, sacrificed more than a few artifacts and nick-knacks to their rages when I tried to play peacemaker,” Sam said with a shrug. 

“Wow. Still. Just getting them talking was a miracle and a half,” Gabriel told him before looking around. “You got a new couch?” 

“Yeah…well…the other one…um…after you left…” Sam was blushing bright red, but Gabriel got the hint and let out a loud belly laugh. 

Once he was calm, he said, “So it seems like everything is working out. How’s your other project? The baby.”

As if summoned by the mention, Kelly came into the room preceded by her baby bump. “Sam, I was wondering…sorry I didn’t realize you had company.”

“No, that’s okay Kelly. You’re welcome to join us. Did you need anything?” 

“I was just wondering if you could get me some more pickles?” she asked hopefully, as she lowered herself to the couch on Gabriel’s other side. 

“Sure,” Sam told her but before he could grab his keys and jacket, Gabriel snapped his fingers and handed her a jar of pickles. 

She had almost gotten used to seeing Michael do that over the last week they had been here, but it seemed that Sam had other angel friends as well. “Thank you,” she told him as she opened it and grabbed one of the pickles. It wasn’t long before she was having trouble keeping her eyes open and Sam helped her to her feet so she could go to bed. 

“Well it seems like you have everything well in hand,” Gabriel told him, but Sam stopped him before he could leave. 

“Stay?” Sam asked hopefully. 

“Why?” Gabriel asked again, looking deep into Sam’s eyes this time, practically begging him to answer. To give him something. Some reason for him to stay. When he did, it wasn’t in the form of words. Sam just leaned forward and pressed his lips softly to Gabriel’s and the archangel leaned into it. It didn’t last long, nor did either of them move to deepen it before Sam pulled back, hope and longing shining in his eyes. Gabriel gave him a half-smile as he reached up to brush a lock of hair out of Sam’s eyes, and said, “Okay.”

Sam breathed a sigh of relief, mostly that he wasn’t being smote right now, as he leaned back on the couch, prompting Gabriel to do the same. They each had a knee tucked in front of them, facing each other as Gabriel started the conversation. “So, how have you been doing, with all the mess with your brother and all?” 

Sam sighed sadly. “Not great, to be honest, but he made his choice, and I can’t change his mind. I refuse to be a part of it anymore, so we’re at an impasse. Unless something gives, which I don’t see happening, this is just how it’s gotta be.”

“Well, if it helps, I’m proud of you,” Gabriel said softly, reaching out to twirl of lock of Sam’s hair around his finger. 

“Thank you, Gabriel. Really,” Sam told him earnestly. “And thank you for waking me up too. I mean, yeah, it hurt, but it needed to be done, so thank you.”

“I hope you see now, that nothing is black and white. There’s no such thing as good and evil. Everyone and everything has their reasons, and more times than not, there’s a peaceful solution to be found, if you just look for it,” Gabriel told him. 

“Yeah. I get that now,” Sam told him. “I don’t think Dean ever will though,” he added sadly. 

“I don’t think he will either. He’s always been far too set in his ways,” Gabriel told him. “But then I didn’t think you had much of a chance either, so you never know.”

The rest of the evening and well into the night was spent like that. Just sitting there on the couch, facing each other, talking and laughing. They would occasionally reach out for small touches, a hand on the arm, a flip of the hair, the brush of a hand on a cheek, but that night was just about letting go and learning about each other. 

Gabriel was a frequent visitor after that, but had been very good at avoiding his brothers when they checked in. Well, until the first time one of them popped by while he and Sam were occupied that was. He didn’t spot them coming quickly enough. He didn’t even sense him in the room with them until he heard a voice gasp, “Gabriel!?”


	10. Chapter 10

Gabriel cursed and shifted off Sam, glad that they hadn’t reached the point to be shedding clothes yet as he turned around. “Michael,” Gabriel said politely with a nod, like his being here wasn’t completely knocking his brother’s whole world for a loop. 

They were saved by the bell, or rather by a scream and a flash of power rushing through the bunker. “I’ll go get Luc,” Michael said hastily and flashed away so fast Sam barely noticed he was gone before he returned with Lucifer, the father to be rather unsteady on his feet after being whisked away without so much as a by your leave. He had just opened his mouth to say something, whether about the abrupt flight or the previously dead brother, but he was stopped by another pulse of power and another scream as the three archangels and one human quickly made their way down the hall. 

As the only one with any experience delivering babies, Gabriel quickly took control, settling between her legs and checking the progress once he saw the large wet spot that meant that her water broke. “Sam, go get her some ice chips. Michael, snap up some blankets and warm water. Luci…” he just pointed to Kelly’s side. 

“What?” Lucifer asked confused. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Hold her hand. You knocked her up. That’s your job.”

“I fail to see the point…” he trailed off at the glare on his brother’s face and hopped to, taking Kelly’s hand in his. Sam returned about that time with the ice chips and handed them to her. 

It didn’t take long before the sound of a baby’s cries rang out in the room, and Kelly was still. Gabriel quickly cleaned and wrapped the baby before handing him to Lucifer. “Well now that’s handled…” Gabriel raised his hand to snap only to find his wrist caught in Michael’s firm grip and his eldest brother looking at him pointedly. Gabriel sighed, and his shoulders slumped. “It was worth a shot,” he grumbled. When Michael didn’t let him go and just kept looking at him expectantly, Gabriel squirmed a bit. “What?” he asked defensively. 

“You know perfectly well what, Gabriel,” Michael said firmly. 

“Okay, fine, so I ran away,” Gabriel finally admitted. “Can you blame me? Dad left. Luci fell. You were on a rampage. Raph was just following you around like a puppy, not daring to disagree with a word you said, and every time I tried to protect the little ones, I got crucified for it, so yeah. I left. Been hiding out here on earth ever since.”

“I thought I killed you,” Lucifer said regretfully. 

“Nah. You just killed a clone. Guess you don’t know ALL my tricks, huh big brother,” Gabriel said with a smirk. 

“Gabriel…I’m sorry,” Lucifer said desperately. 

“Water under the bridge,” Gabriel tried to wave it off. 

Michael knew his baby brother better than he expected though. “No, Gabriel. It’s not. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry too. I know you’ve never had another half, so you can’t possibly imagine how it feels, but losing Lucifer…it was like losing a part of myself. I wish I hadn’t taken it out on everyone else. Only now that we are reunited, and I’m whole again can I see how much damage I’ve done. I am working to restore heaven to it’s rightful glory, and we would love to have you home again.”

“I don’t know,” Gabriel said haltingly, turning to look at Sam, who had stepped silently aside, letting the brothers have their moment. Since he was looking at Sam, he didn’t see Michael and Lucifer share a look and a nod. 

“You don’t have to worry about losing him, baby brother,” Lucifer said softly. 

“What do you mean?” Gabriel asked. “If I return home…” He knew how things worked. Hopping back and forth from heaven to earth too often could weaken the borders of the dimension. It was why Michael and Lucifer only checked in once a week for the last few months, and why the garrisons who were assigned to watch over humanity were long term assignments. 

“He can come with you,” Michael said. 

“But for a human to come to heaven…”

“He doesn’t have to be human,” Lucifer said trying to clue him in on what he was thinking. 

“You don’t mean…” They both nodded. “You would…” They nodded again. “Why…”

“Because we owe him more than we could ever repay,” Michael told him. “He could have let me rot in the cage.”

“And me in Crowley’s little torture chamber,” Lucifer added. 

“But he set us free. He helped us find each other again. He protected our son until he could be born,” Michael told him. 

“It’s really the least we could do,” Lucifer finished. 

“Gabriel’s the one who set me on that path to begin with,” Sam tried to deflect some of the praise that he didn’t feel he deserved. 

“Then it is good that this would reward you both,” Michael said smugly. 

“What would reward us both?” Sam asked confused, having no idea what they were talking about. 

“They’re offering to make you an angel,” Gabriel clued him in. 

“Not just an angel,” Lucifer told him. “An archangel.”

“What?!” Sam asked shocked. 

“There have always been four of us. We are unable to revive Raphael, but we can still add a fourth. The balance is essential after all. You will balance Gabriel just as I do Lucifer,” Michael told him. 

“You can’t be serious?” Sam asked incredulously, looking for Gabriel for some kind of guidance. 

“It’s completely up to you, Sam,” Gabriel told him. 

Sam realized that this was more than just whether or not he wanted to be an angel. He was essentially deciding if Gabriel could go home. If he said no, Gabriel would have to choose between him and finally getting to go back home. To a place that he’d spent centuries, maybe even millennia longing for. How could he possibly make Gabriel choose? “Okay,” Sam let out a nervous breath. 

“Okay, as in you’ll do it?” Michael asked just to be sure. 

“Yes. I’ll do it,” he said, and all trepidation was washed away by the joy shining in Gabriel’s eyes. 

Lucifer snapped his fingers and created a cradle to place the baby in as the three archangels surrounded Sam. The main reason the hadn’t offered before was because in order to make another archangel, it took three of them. Only two to create a seraph, but they had still needed Sam here to care for Kelly anyway. Perhaps they may have offered afterwards, but now they could give him the ultimate reward. 

Sam sucked in a sharp breath as he felt three hands placed on his head and the resulting power nearly crashed the already battered wards. Between birthing a Nephilim and creating an archangel, they couldn’t handle much more. As the three archangels stepped back, Sam stumbled on his feet at the rush of power, causing Gabriel to rush forward again to steady him. Once he was steady on his feet, Sam sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of Gabriel’s true form. His grace. He pulled his boyfriend in for a heated kiss, whispering a soft, “I love you,” against his lips. 

“And I love you, my Samshine,” Gabriel whispered back, feeling lighter than air at the moment as they exchanged those words for the first time. 

Lucifer and Michael stepped aside and let them have their moment as they cooed over their new baby. If he followed the normal pattern of Nephilim, they wouldn’t have him like this for long. He would be fully grown in less than half a year, so they didn’t want to miss a moment. They had agreed to Kelly’s request to name him Jack after her father. It was the least they could do to honor the boy’s mother. It wasn’t long before Sam and Gabriel seemed to have collected themselves, so Michael said, “Shall we go home?” 

“I have a few things I need to do first,” Sam told them, and Gabriel nodded. 

“We’ll wait here for you,” Gabriel promised. 

“Um…How do I…”

“Fly? Just think of where you want to go…or who you want to go to, and just will yourself there,” Gabriel explained. 

Sam closed his eyes and a moment later he disappeared in a flutter of wings, landing in the backseat of the Impala, nearly causing Dean to swerve off the road. “What the fuck, Sam? How did you get here?” 

“I just thought you should know…I won’t be around anymore. I’m an angel now, so the bunker is yours if you want it,” Sam said, not sure why he expected a better greeting from his brother. 

Dean scoffed. “So, you joined the douche patrol huh? Didn’t realize they were taking applications.”

“How could you…” Cas started, knowing that only the combined power of two archangels could even create a seraph and that it would take three to make an archangel which he could clearly see that Sam was. 

Sam cut him off though. “Heaven is being restored to a place of joy and laughter. It’s not the ‘douche patrol’ anymore.”

“Whatever. Have fun,” Dean said dismissively. 

“Well anyway. I just thought you should know, that no one will be around to clean up your messes anymore since Gabriel is coming with me. Have a good life, Dean,” Sam said as he flew away, right back into Gabriel’s arms, willing the tears to go away.


	11. Chapter 11

Sam was a little surprised that it took Cas three months to show up in heaven. They had all been working on restoring the angel’s wings, but there were a lot of angels, even after how many had been lost over the last five years, so it was taking time, which meant the portal in the sandbox was still open, but only one-way. Once they returned, they had to stay. An exception may be made for this one though.

Cas barged into the throne room, not that any of them were particular about their thrones and all. Gabriel was perched on Sam’s lap on his throne as they fed each other berries while laughing, and Michael and Lucifer’s thrones were pushed close together as their heads rested together, Michael’s arm slung over Lucifer’s shoulders, and stealing small kisses every few moments. Cas’ gasp drew all their attention, though. Perhaps if he hadn’t rudely barged in without knocking, he may have had an easier time of it, but only Sam was feeling the least bit forgiving to the now horribly confused seraph. 

“Castiel,” Michael said coldly. “We wondered if you would dare show your face back here again.”

“What is going on?” Cas asked narrowing his eyes at Lucifer, and to a lesser extent, Michael. 

“You think you can barge in here uninvited and demand answers?” Gabriel asked incredulously as two angels came rushing in, the smirk on Lucifer’s face telling them exactly who caused them. 

“I think we need a public trial,” Lucifer told them. “The others need to see how we handle crimes such as his. 

“Did you get one?” Cas asked, heatedly, trying not to cower in fear. 

“My crimes were far less than yours, Castiel,” Lucifer told him emotionlessly. “I may have been many things, but never did I kill a brother in cold blood.”

Sam looked sympathetically as Cas, but he couldn’t stop what was coming. He knew that he would argue against death for his crimes, and he was pretty sure that Gabriel would too. He was all about people living to learn their lessons, but he was sure, knowing all that Cas was responsible for, that the death penalty would at least be on the table. He did lean over to Gabriel and whisper, “Make sure it’s fair?” 

“It will be,” Gabriel promised as they followed their brothers outside. 

It took less than an hour to have all the angels gathered for the trial. Michael quickly took control before it could turn into a circus. He had every intention of making sure this didn’t turn into a witch hunt and was as fair as he could make it, but the seraph had to pay for his crimes. He started by reading the charges. Twenty-eight individual counts of murder, two counts of mass murder and terrorism, and one count of regicide, for Raphael. Up until a few months ago, they could have added more charges for dereliction of duty, disobeying orders, and so on, but they had long decided to absolve everyone from those crimes during that period. Murder wasn’t covered under that amnesty though for obvious reasons. As Lucifer had said, even he would never kill a brother. 

What followed was long and grueling. They went through every angel that Castiel had killed, asking him to explain the circumstances surrounding it, his actions, the actions of the other angels, his motives, and everything else they could think of. Sam could see why Gabriel had been so upset at the way Sam did things if this was the way trials usually went up here. Thankfully, the fact that there was no ability to lie in heaven was the only reason it didn’t take weeks to get through. It was less than 24 hours before Cas was pronounced guilty of seventeen counts of murder, the other eleven being deemed self-defense or in defense of others, one count of mass murder when he slaughtered Raphael’s loyalists after killing Raphael, the other being the angel’s falling where it was agreed that he participated under false pretenses, and the count of regicide, for Raphael’s murder. It had come out during questioning that the Leviathan within him weren’t responsible for Raphael or the massacre of angels, though they were responsible for many human deaths. While there were many of the gathered angels that were calling for him to be held accountable for calling himself the new god, but Michael quieted that down by pointing out that it hadn’t technically broken any laws, if only because it was assumed that no one would dare. 

It wasn’t like Cas wasn’t in enough trouble already with everything that he was already guilty of. The four archangels had a sidebar to discuss sentencing. Sam and, as he’d expected, Gabriel, argued against death, Lucifer and Michael were for it, but since death was such a permanent solution, Lucifer and Michael caved, not willing to go there without at least one more on their side. In the end they decided on banishment with his grace bound. It would still heal him and keep him alive, but he couldn’t use it in any outward ways, and he would never be permitted to enter heaven again. It was forbidden for any of the other angels to seek him out for revenge though. 

As they were headed back to their rooms, Sam asked Gabriel worriedly, “Shouldn’t I be held accountable for everything I did? Me and Dean?” 

“Perhaps,” Gabriel told him, honestly. “But you were human, and your crimes were against humans. They aren’t a matter for us to judge. Same with your brother. Even the crimes you committed against angels, weren’t a matter for us since you weren’t an angel and not subject to our laws.” When Gabriel noticed the guilt shadowing Sam’s face, he added, “Besides, you have done what you could to make amends, and to change. You learned your lesson, which is more than I can say for your brother. It’s not my place to absolve you, but if you need to hear it, I forgive you.”

Sam breathed a sigh of relief, but the guilt remained. “Thank you, Gabriel. It does help. But those deaths will always stay with me.”

“As they should. Let them be the reminder to keep on your current path. Let the determination to never let it happen again be what drives you,” Gabriel told him, trying to turn the guilt into something a little more useful. 

When Dean arrived in heaven four years later, Sam forced himself not to go looking for him. Dean had made his choice. As a result, he never knew the part he had played in Dean’s death, small though it may be. He never knew that Dean died in Cas’ arms, the seraph unable to heal him with his grace bound. He never knew that Dean had forgiven him. That he had never truly been angry to begin with. That he just needed that excuse to get away before they went too far to save each other again, and perhaps that was punishment enough for them both.


End file.
